“Running a startup is kind of like surfing,” says Vinod Nair, founder and CEO of Singapore-based startup Moneysmart. “You go out to sea, paddle like mad against the current and oncoming waves and wait for the big wave to go on the ride of your life.”

After some mad paddling, Moneysmart has caught quite a wave. The company today announced it raised its series A round of funding, worth S$2.8 million (US$1.96 million). The round is led by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Media Fund. Golden Gate Ventures, Convergence Ventures, and OPT SEA also joined in.

Private investors such as SingCapital CEO Alfred Chia, Propnex CEO Mohammad Ismail, Propnex director Alan Lim, VP Asia-Pacific for Homeaway Dan Lynn, and Zopim co-founders Royston Tay and Kwok Yang Bin participated as well.

The investment is a bit of a departure for SPH Media Fund, as Moneysmart is not strictly a media company, but SPH Media Fund CEO Chua Boon Ping says it’s not just seeking opportunities for synergy, it will also invest in companies that it feels have potential for financial growth.

Fintech boom

Moneysmart provides simplified financial advice to customers, limiting the confusing jargon and helping them decide which financial service is suitable for them. The startup allows users to ask for advice, compare prices and features for products like loans, insurance, and credit cards, and apply for them through the site.

See: Singapore’s MoneySmart heads to Indonesia with acquisition of regional counterpartIn addition, Moneysmart runs a content blog that dispenses advice and wisdom through posts like “Why the COE System in Singapore Benefits Only the Rich” and “After Spending So Much On Home Renovations, Are You Sure Your Home is Protected?” The blog was actually the first thing bearing the Moneysmart name, starting out in 2012 as a companion service to SmartLoans, the company’s previous incarnation. In 2014, everything was consolidated under the Moneysmart name.

“We’re not a bank, we don’t want to sound like one,” Vinod says. “We started our blog because we wanted to educate and engage our audience more frequently. We thought that content would be a great way to reach out to a new audience.”

The company plans to use the new funding to fuel its growth in Singapore and Indonesia – and also expand to one more market. Vinod says the company is looking at the Philippines, Thailand, or Hong Kong as potential candidates.

Moneysmart will also be recruiting across the board, and boosting its marketing efforts in Singapore and Indonesia. Vinod tells Tech in Asia the funding gives the company a runway of about 12 to 18 months, where it will be using the playbook it adopted when expanding to Indonesia in its next market.

Against the tide

The startup was born out of failure, Vinod says. Six years ago, his first startup, a real estate search engine, was going nowhere fast. Vinod felt the year and a half of his life he’d put into it had gone up in smoke. Taking another shot on that surfboard, he put the last of his savings into one final shot at entrepreneurship, founding SmartLoans.

After a successful start, the company hit a big snag due to Singapore’s property cooling measures, a series of regulations designed to rein in booming property prices. The policies hit a lot of mortgage brokers, and Vinod’s startup was no exception.

Thanks to a shot in the arm by NUS and a subsequent investment by Golden Gate Ventures and Singapore’s National Research Foundation, the company was able to soldier on. After acquiring its regional counterpart KreditAja in Indonesia (now known as DuitPintar, Moneysmart saw annual revenue of over S$1 million (US$702,000) at the end of the last year, and gets 500,000 unique visitors per month with 1.5 million page views. DuitPintar accounts for another 500,000 page views.

(UPDATE, 5:00pm): The story incorrectly mentioned that Indonesian startup UangTeman is a competitor of Moneysmart and DuitPintar.